Tuinvaas met een fries van dansende vrouwen 1645 - 1710

Here is Abraham Storck’s pen and wash study of a garden vase with a frieze of dancing women. Storck worked in the Netherlands during the 17th and early 18th centuries, a time when the Dutch Republic was a major economic and artistic power. The vase, with its classical figures and ornamentation, speaks to the cultural aspirations of the Dutch elite. It is not simply a container for plants but a display of wealth, taste, and knowledge of classical antiquity. Garden vases such as this would have been commissioned to signal the owner's membership of an exclusive club of wealthy intellectuals who followed the trends of the French court. We might consider the politics of imagery here. The dancing women and classical motifs evoke a sense of idealized beauty and harmony, which is in contrast to the reality of a society built on mercantilism and colonialism. To understand this drawing, we need to look at the social conditions that shaped artistic production during this period, using sources such as letters, inventories, and other documents. Art always depends on its social and institutional context.